To make their ordeal a little more bearable as they awaited rescue, drugs were smuggled down to them in family letters, a new book claims.

They also sought a further lift during the 69 days they spent half a mile underground by asking for blow-up sex dolls.

When this was refused because the doctor in charge feared having to share them would lead to jealousy, the miners had to make do with pin-up posters instead.
Nor did the presence of marijuana, posted down a communications shaft to them, necessarily promote camaraderie, the book says.

One miner, Samuel Avalos, noticed how a group of his colleagues would peel away, he suspected, to smoke the drug.

But, said they 'never even offered me one' although he was desperate to relieve the stress of his predicament.

The book's author, New York Times journalist Jonathan Franklin who gained special access to the rescue operation, said the small amount of drugs 'created more tension than it relieved' and claims worried officials discussed using a sniffer dog to intercept drugs before they were posted.

The men's 'greatest need', however, was women, Franklin says, and doctors worked on 'how to appease the expected rise in sexual desires'.

Once Chilean doctor monitoring the miners' physical condition while they were trapped in the San Jose gold and copper mine in northern Chile's Atacama Desert, said a donor offered ten inflatable dolls for the miners', but was turned down.

'I said 33 or none. Otherwise they would be fighting for inflatable dolls: whose turn is it? Who was seen with whose fiancee? You are flirting with my inflatable doll,' the medic, Dr Jean Romagnoli, reportedly said.